The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-04-30
A Night Of ReVelry.
THE NEWS OF LEES SURRENDER.


Corps of the Army of the Cumber-
land on the receipt of the news OF
the final collapse of the rebellion.
That corps of about $4,000 men had
been stationed during the closing
months of their long service near
Bulbs Gap, Tennessee, to intercept
Lee in case he should seek that way
of escape from Richmond. One dark
night near the middle of April, after
the grizzled veterans had knocked
the ashes from their pipes and crawl
ed into their shelters made ofboughs,
suddenly there came long roll of
drums and piercing bugle blasts, and
the various regiments were soon
ready for action but no one knew
the cause of their sudden call to duty.
1t was one of those moments of anx-
ious suspense that test the courage of
the bravest veteran.
IAN orderly from brigade head
quarters dashed up and handed a
paper to the Colonel of our regiment.
A bit of candle was found, and by its
sputtering light the Colonel glanced
at the message. Jumping about four
feet in the air he gave one wild pierre
ing yell that an Apache chief might
strive in vain to rival. We all thought
for the moment that he had gone
crazy. When he came down he hand
ed the paper to the adjutant, letting
off another yell, and told him to read
1t to the regiment. 1t was copy of
a telegram from Secretary Stanton,
announcing the surrender of Lees
army, The scene that followed no
words can adequately describe. The
Colonel and adjutant swung their
hats and danced around and fairly
howled. Every officer and soldier in
the regiment, and in every other
regiment, did the same thing. We
had heard shouting and yelling be-
fore, and had done our full share of
it on occasions. but never anything
like that which greeted the reading
of this dispatch. From one end of
the camp to the other the confusion
and uproar were prodigious. Men
laughed and danced and Rugged one
another, and rent the air with every
kind of noise possible to the human
voice pitched in its highest key. 1t
was as if the inmates of a score of
lunatic asylums had been turned loose
in those Tennessee woods.
"When the yelling had in some
degree subsidized. from sheer vocal
exhaustion, the soldiers began to
cast about for other means to make
q noise. It didn't matter what it
was-the more discordant the better,
only so that it helped to swell the
din. Meanwhile, all the brass bands
were playing though nobody could
tell what the tunes were-the shrek
of flies and rattle of drums were
heard on every hand, and the buglers
strained to make themselves heard
until it seemed as if they would blow
their heads off. Then the artillery
opened. Gun after gun Joined in the
mighty chorus until every battery in
the corps was sending forth its thun-
ders to echo among the mountains.
Regiment after regiment began to
fire their muskets. The men took
the cartridges from their boxes.
poured in the powder. rammed down
the paper for wadding, and blazed
away. The balls they threw upon
the ground !, there was no further use
for them. When the soldiers had
shot away their cartridges they hun
ted up all the camp-kettles and tin
pans, and beat them furiously with
sticks and stones, still yelling and
shouting as fast as they could gather
breath enough to do so,
There was no rank in camp that
night. Officers and men joined in the
appalling racket, vieing with one an
other in producing the most startling
effects. Half an hour after the trouble
began an orderly from headquarters
Brought around an order. 1t said:
"Regimental commander will issue
a ration of whisky to each officer and
man.
SIP. S.-Give 'em a double ration
SIT was not long till the commits
sary' was distributed, each man re-
ceiving his portion in his canteen or
tin cup. An Illinois Colonel noun
ted stump, and. as he held up his
canteen, declared that a man who
wouldn't get drunk that night didn't
deserve to have a country; and If
any man of his regiment should be
found sober in one.hour by the watch
he would be tried on the spot by
drum-head court-martial. He then
set an example by emptying his can
teen at single pull, while the boys
cheered with tremendous vigor.
UTTnOn tho nvhiIorotinn inAuanoo